‘Hello, this is me, honey. I have to leave on an urgent business trip. Please get me some spare clothes for about a week. I will be home soon so don’t lock
the door. Kiss you’.

‘Alright. I will do it don’t worry. Are you going alone or with someone else?’

‘Alone. I can't talk now. See you soon.’

Lucy started to pack up her husband’s clothes. She was doing it very slowly,to the touch, that’s why Edward called her in advance. She had
poor eyesight and was almost blind. A few years ago, while looking for a book on a bookshelf she climbed stairs, buther foot slipped suddenly
from the stair stepand she fell to the floor. The height of the fall was not serious, but she hit her head heavily. The
doctor congratulated her on staying alive, as for her eyesight it was possible to restore it by means of surgery.

The operation was delayed. After the fall she started to suffer from hypertension and thus was constantly on clonidine. She was afraid to
undergo surgeryand doctors didn’t insist as operating on a hypertensive patient wasalways risky.

Lusy was going through a course of medical treatment for hypertension and was feeling fine. Edward helped her in everything,but
when he was away one of theirneighbors would stay with Lucy until Edward’s return. She wasn’t wearing glasses as they weren’t of much help. With glasses
or without them she still saw thingsvaguely.For that reason Edward asked her not to lock the door, otherwise his business trip
could have been delayed for quite a long time.

Lucy collected all his belongings necessary for the trip and was waiting for Edward to come. She made a cup of coffee for him. He loved her coffee very much. With a cup of
coffee in her hands she walked into the sitting room. She felt at once that there was somebody in the room.

‘Are you home already, honey? I have packed your things up like you asked me to do and made a cup of your favorite coffee.’

Lucy came closer to him and handed him the cup.

‘Drink it, honey. Call me as soon as you get there.’

‘I , I….’

He tried to say something, but he dropped the cup and fell to the floor.

‘What’s the matter with you, Edward?’

Lucy couldn’t understand what had happened. He was lying on the floor, he was dead. She was confused and didn’t know what to do. There was no one around except for her and her
husband. They lived in an inner neighborhood and their only neighbor who often came around was away for a few days visiting her daughter. Lucy was absolutely alone there.
She couldn’t dial an emergency number, nor could she find her glasses. Then shefinally ordereda doctor. The doctor said that Edward died of a
heart attack.

‘But my husband had never had heart problems.’

The doctor started to explain to her in detail what a heart attack was. Of course Lucy wasn’t able to understand anything. She was thinking
about her life without Edward.

In a few days, everything was over. His body was cremated according to his will. Despite the great loss, Lucy’s eyesight improved a little and hypertension
seemed tobother herless.

‘The doctors were right. My eyesight is coming back.I wish Edward were here with me. He would be so happy.’

The tears ran down her cheeks. Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain in her head. She decided to take a painkiller . She stretched out her hand mechanically
toward a coffee cup in which, on Edward’s advice she was keeping clonidine easily on hand. Lucy was looking for the cup but couldn’t find it. It was always
in its proper place.

‘It’s impossible! Oh, God what have I done!Did I kill him? I poured coffee into the cup with a least thirty clonidine pills in it.
What have I done!’

Lucy wanted to go to the police station to tell them everything, but she was scared. What if theywould not believe her and
concluded that she did it on purpose.How could she prove her innocence?

After hours of torment, she figured that going to the police station and telling them about it would be a pretty stupid thing to do.

‘This is going to be our secret, honey.’The doctor in charge of the case advised Lucyto take a holiday. She really needed some rest after the pain she had gone through. But instead of going on holiday
she decided to relocate from the place where everything reminded her of Edward. Her eyesight was almost restored to normal and the hypertension was over.Lucy packed up quickly. She thoughtof going travelling and finding a small house somewhere at the same time. She wanted to go to
herneighbor to tell her about her decision, when suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Lucy went to the door.

‘This must be her. I am coming.’

‘Is that you?’Edward was standing right in front of her.

‘I am home , honey. It took too long to come back home. What’s wrong with yourphone? I called you a few times. I am sorry I couldn’t call you
often,I was very busy. Every time I called you,the number was not in service.

‘Are you alright, Lucy? Can you see me?’

She could see him perfectly,but she was unable to understand what was going on.

“But you died, Edward. Your body was cremated.’’

‘’What are you talking about? Why should I have died? As you see, I am alive, healthy, but very tired. I will take a shower now. Hope we have something delicious for
dinner. I am sorry, I didn’t have time to comesay goodbye before I left andtake the clothes you prepared for me. I missed you so much.’

He reached out to Lucy to embrace her.

‘Wait I have to tell you something.’

‘What is it? Be quick I am starving.’

Lucy told him everything. He didn’t take in at once what had happened. But when he finally realized the situation it came as a terrible shock to him.

‘Lucy who was that wretched man you killed? How can I prove now that it’s me? Oh, God what have you done?!’

Lucy tried to explain to him that in principle nothing dreadful happened to him. Though, he was staring at his wife and there was nothing in his eyes, but terror .

Lucy kept on telling him that he would have tomove to another city, get new papers and that she would provide him with his own money the owner
of which she had already become. As soon as he settled down she would come to his place. She was filled with optimism and enthusiasm. However, there was something that
seemed to discomfort her. ‘Who was the man she killed? Are the police searching for him?’ Edward in his deeply depressed state of mind started to get rather
paranoid at the same time would humbly follow his wife’s advice. As for Lucy, she felt quite elated.

‘The doctors were right. You recovered your vision. This is the only one thing that makes me happy.’

In a few days she saw him off at the airport. She figured that it would be safer if he left the country with his new papers. At the airport she passed him
off as her brother who lost his documents while travelling.

‘I will come to your place as soon as I am done selling the house. Don’t get bored without me. It’s the beginning of our new life.’

‘But who was the man in our house?’

‘I have no idea. I couldn’t see anything then. Maybe it was a thief for you asked me not to shut the door and so I did.’

‘Maybe, you are right.’

In a few days, Lucy finished dealing with the sale of the house, the lot, and the car, and started to get ready for her departure."

Everything went off just as she had planned and was quite convincing:the falling from the stairs, the head injury, the sudden decline of her eyesight, and exhausting
hypertension. She deceived the doctors by using atropine eyedrops every day in both eyes.. . She really couldn't see anything. There was no fall from the stairs, no injury and no hypertension
at all. Who will charge an almost blind woman withunintended murder? But who was the man she killed? Are they searching for him?

Of course, Lucy wasn’t going to Edward’s place. She didn’t need him anymore she got from him what she wanted so much. As a young, beautiful, healthy, and free and what was most important a
rich woman she was going to start a new life. The only one thing she took from her previous life was her husband’s money, who had become her ex-husband by that time.

She looked around the house to make sure she didn’t forget anything. She saw the cremation urn.

She took the urn and spilled the ashes over the flowers. With a happy smile on her face she came up to her new and shiny car and got inside. She looked amazingly
beautiful in it.

‘Just a minute, please. I am investigatingthe disappearance of an advertising firm worker. We have a recording of his conversation in which he tells his friend
thathe had been offered a cup of coffee at once for the first time in his practice by a charming blonde. As it was found out later he visited two houses that
day. One of them belonged to an aged couple and the second one to you. He had marked the addresses. I have to arrest you.’